The Fear Dissertation // A Jonathan Crane Dark Romance

55

Only when I shut off the shower do I realise my phone's been ringing nonstop.

I frown, wrapping myself up in a fluffy — and sure enough, monogrammed — towel. The early morning light spills into the room through the windows, but there's no warmth to it yet. No warmth beside the towel covering me, the heat still lingering on my skin from the warm water.

I answer the phone. "Harleen, what's up?"

"Sienna." Her voice cracks. "Have you seen the news?"

My blood chills. "No. What is it?"

"Don't look. I'll be right there."

She hangs up. I stare at my phone for a moment, utterly bewildered. It doesn't even cross my mind that the sensible thing to do would be exactly what she said. To not look. To simply continue about my morning, getting dressed and ready for work, and waiting until she arrives. Her new house is only down the road, after all. The Spooky House, Harleen had christened it. Perfect for a fear baby.

But it doesn't cross my mind. My one and only overriding instinct is to open up the news site for the Gotham Gazette.

ARKHAM ASYLUM: Psychopathic Eugenics Experiments Led by Head Psychiatrist Doctor Jonathan Crane

Since the day of its opening, Arkham Asylum has long been suspected of nefarious and barbaric treatments and experiments. Inmates are criminally insane, and the staff are rumoured to be almost as bad, oftentimes paid off to recommend dangerous criminals be housed in the Asylum, rather than serving jail time where they belong.

"It's becoming almost an epidemic," says Rachel Dawes, Prosecutor at the DA Office of Gotham. "Almost every serious offender in the past twelve months has been declared criminally insane by Arkham's so-called professionals. They're all paid off by the leading figures of Gotham's underworld. I'd argue it's the most corrupt system in all of Gotham. Arkham needs to be shut down, and fast."

Not only is the institute for the criminally insane renowned for its corruption, new documents have been leaked showing that Head Psychiatrist of the Asylum, Doctor Jonathan Crane, has been designing and actively procreating a 'new race' of 'superhumans' that are thought to be immune to all sensations of fear. Such research has been in conjunction with PhD candidate Sienna Moore. The duo have even gone so far as to pursue a relationship and create such a child of their own — the product of barbaric treatments both Crane and Moore personally undertook in order to alter their genetic responses.

"Eugenics is an interesting field," comments a spokesperson from Wayne Tower, the leading corporation when it comes to investments in new technologies and medical modalities. "There's a principle of ethics involved, and it's an incredibly difficult field to regulate. You have my word that Wayne Enterprises will never invest into the field. I mean, designing humans incapable of feeling fear? And you're telling me this is taking place inside an asylum for the criminally insane? It needs to be stopped. That unborn child needs to be eradicated, and fast. It's entirely irresponsible and could have devastating effects on the whole of Gotham. That sort of thing will be what destroys our city, if not our entire world. Mark my words."

When asked about the psychopathic offspring, Head of the Psychology Department at the Gotham University Professor Vilmer had this to say:

"There is a strict code of ethics all research at this University must abide to. However, the foundation of our work here is research itself — how are we to know the impossible lest we unearth it?"

It bears noting that Professor Vilmer is a former associate of Doctor Jonathan Crane, having supervised the latter's thesis on the very toxic compound utilised to create the 'superhuman race' immune to fear. Headmaster of the University, Doctor Baird, has assured this publication that any and all affiliation with or abetting of illegal practices shall be dealt with by the University, and all offending staff or students shall be referred to the appropriate authorities.